Friday, February 27, 2015

Eckleburg asks you to adopt a writer or artist. One of the, is the poet Rita Maria Martinez, author of Jane-in-the-Box, who contributes with the poem Jane Eyre Dreams of Laci Peterson:

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Jane Eyre Dreams of Laci Petersonby Rita Maria Martinez

Captivated by stories of abusive relationships,of mysterious deaths and missing persons,I watched late night programs like Wicked Attraction,The New Detectives, and Deadly Women.Fascinated by blood splatter theory, gunpowder residue,fingerprint bruises on abandoned female corpses,I hoped to crack the code behind Bertha’s unabashed cackle,wondered if I could cope with Eddie’s cockamamieplan to keep her caged like a gerbil. One evening I caughta recap on Laci’s fate: The bay slowly erasing her featuresas her husband nonchalantly purchased and watchedsnuff films, streamed an endless parade of womenon his high def screen, their faces eventually blurringlike his wife’s. He could barely remember what the wifeylooked like—though her photo was plastered everywhere,so pretty and preggers in that little black cocktail dress.Finally, the decomposed body surfaced,limbs drifting like disembodied mannequin parts.After the baby washed ashore, those at the morgue admiredits perfectly formed fingernails, its golden eyelashes,which flooded my thoughts, then my dreams, for months.Always the same image: Conner’s eyelashes dissolvinginto a warm, golden light enveloping Laci,who eternally sleeps on a bed of sand, seashellsnestled and glowing in her hair.

*Laci Denise Peterson (1975–2002) was an American woman who went missing while seven and a half months pregnant with her first child. Her husband, Scott Peterson, was later convicted of murder in the first degree for Laci and in the second degree for their prenatal son, Conner.